~ capturing my families' memories

and then there’s Maude

Maude Mae Rury nee Hilton was my paternal great, grandmother. She died in March 1964 and I presume that the obituary shown here was published in the Ponca City, Oklahoma newspaper (note the incorrect spelling of her surname).

Born in 1889, Maude was the first born child of Jesse and Mattie Hilton. The family moved from Kansas to Oklahoma by 1894. Ponca City was founded in 1893 but I do not know if the family was in Ponca City by 1894 or just in Oklahoma. Sometime after 1901, when the last of Jesse and Mattie’s six children were born, Jesse left the family and moved to California. In order to raise her six children, grand daughter Ottie said, Mattie ‘took in washings and ironings and rented out part of her house’.

About 1905, when Maude was 15 years old she married James Rury who was 23 years older than her. James and Maude were married for about 3 years before they had their first child and over the next ten years they had 2 more. In 1925 when their youngest daughter was 6 years old, James died. Sometime between 1928 and 1930 Maude moved to Arizona and opened a sewing shop and by 1930 had moved to California. According to the obituary she worked for the San Diego Public Library compiling a book that was published in 1936. Then later, during world war II, she worked for General Dynamics, a major employer during WWII employing 41,000 people by 1943.

The book Maude compiled, Tuna; Some Notes on the Tuna Industry of San Diego, was published in 1936. I have yet to see or read the book but my aunt has a copy that I hope to see. The book is listed in several bibliographies and library holdings in California and from those citations I learned that the information in the book is a compilation of previously printed material and was part of the Works Project Adminstration (WPA).

Welcome!

Delving into family stories, documents and photos is what I enjoy! Relative Storyboard: capturing family memories, is my blog where I share and encourage discussion about my findings. Often I only have tidbits of information that I piece together in hopes that one day I'll have a more complete storyboard.
I hope you find something of interest and I need your comments, if you do. So, if you have questions or if we share an ancestor I really want to hear from you. Leave me a comment or contact me at kayzie31 at gmail.com.